Tag Archives: Royal Canadian Mint

Wanda Robson, sister of Viola Desmond, holds the new $10 bank note featuring Desmond during a press conference in Halifax on Thursday, March 8, 2018. Desmond is the first Canadian woman to be featured on a regularly circulating bank note. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese)

TORONTO – Hundreds of thousands of cash-handling machines across the country have had to be upgraded to handle Canada’s distinctive new $10 bill, featuring a vertical portrait of Nova Scotia civil rights advocate Viola Desmond, while some others still awaiting changes are rejecting the distinctive banknotes.

Ensuring vending and other machines can read the new polymer note requires a software upgrade for each device.

Francine Hochereau, vice-president, marketing and communications at the Royal Canadian Mint and Greg Royer, chief operating officer at the Calgary Zoo unveil the fine silver coin: The Peaceful Panda: a Gift of Friendship. (CNW GROUP / ROYAL CANADIAN MINT)

The Royal Canadian Mint has introduced a “lucky” $8 silver coin to celebrate a new family of giant pandas at the Calgary Zoo.

The coin was unveiled Saturday at the zoo’s new Panda Passage exhibit, which will be home to the pandas for the next five years.

News Highlights

Does anyone out there miss the dear old one cent coin? It’s been almost three years since we stopped using them in Canada. Is it time to think about scrapping the 5-cent piece, the nickel? The folks at the Royal Canadian Mint have done some studies on the subject, but they’re not prepared to say much about them.

Back in the 1950s, a nickel would buy a few cavities at the candy counter, and if you got in trouble somewhere it paid for a phone call home.

A new set of coins depicting the legendary Star Trek franchise has been launched by the Royal Canadian Mint.

The coins celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek: The Original Series.”

A $10 coloured silver coin picturing the commander of U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain James Tiberius Kirk, was unveiled by William Shatner, the Canadian-born actor who made this character a household name, and Mint president and CEO Sandra Hanington at an event hosted by the Canada Aviation and Space Museum on Thursday.

A new one-dollar circulation coin is marking the 100th anniversary of a women’s right to vote.

The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled the coin at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg on Tuesday, with a similar ceremony in Ottawa including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“It is especially fitting that this coin was produced in Winnipeg, in the province where women first won the right to vote in 1916,” said Sandra Hanington, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

Canadian artist Laura McGaw designed the coin, which features a 1916-era depiction of woman and child, with the woman casting a ballot as the child looks on.

The two-dollar coin, or Toonie as it’s more affectionately known, turned the big 2-0 on Friday.

The coin replaced the $2 banknote on February 19, 1996 and nearly 883 million Toonies, featuring nine different reverse (or tails) designs, have entered circulation since then.

“Over the last 20 years, our two-dollar circulation coin has efficiently served Canadian commerce and given the Mint many opportunities to celebrate Canada through special commemorative designs,” said Sandra Hanington, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint. “It is now time for us to shine a spotlight on the Toonie by wishing it a happy 20th birthday.”